J.J. Kelly Band

**LPD_007** · October 9th, 2005, 01:39 AM

Why are we so down this year and for that fact the past 2 or 3 years?

**imported_trumpet1988** · October 9th, 2005, 09:00 AM

They're better from last year I think.

**brasspig** · October 9th, 2005, 09:47 AM

They just (yesterday) won a Superior rating at the McChesney Band festival in Big Stone Gap, along with the best in class award against 4-5 other bands. There were other awards as well, but I don't remember all of them. Two to three years ago they went through several director changes. That can really hurt any program, athletics, music, etc. But, they have a great director now who is doing a wonderful job. I've seen them four times this year. They sound excellent and they're improving every time I see them. I expect them to grow in numbers and quality over the next few years. Keep an eye (and ear) out for them. You'll see it too!

And remember that just because a group is small doesn't mean they are bad. J.J. Kelly is one of the best playing bands I've heard this year. Also, Hazard High in Kentucky had less than 20 members and won (or came in second) the KY State Marching Festival last year! Quality - not quantity.

**wise_ndns_42** · October 9th, 2005, 10:20 AM

I really don't think J.J. Kelly's band is bad at all, but everyone at Kelly thinks the band is really for certain people, a lot of people dont participate because we classify it only for certain people

**brasspig** · October 9th, 2005, 11:42 AM

Certain people? Elaborate please.

**imported_trumpet1988** · October 9th, 2005, 12:22 PM

Kelly's brass sounds good too.

**imported_elp6n** · October 9th, 2005, 01:38 PM

Generally speaking, all bands go through cycles, just as many athletics programs go through cycles.

Example: my Junior year in band at Pound we had nearly 90 members I believe. And that year, we graduated probably 70% of those members. That's difficult to recover from. Add to that mutliple director changes, and it only get more difficult.

Add to that all the politics involved... [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

But regarding Kelly, their numbers may be down, but they're doing things the right way. They'd rather have a smaller number of members, committed to learnng and doing it right, than a large number where there's going to be more slackers that could bring the program down.

Big numbers dont make a band a good band.

Last week at the Wise festival, the next-to-largest band took it all (and they deserved that). The largest band was, well, loud and sloppy.

**imported_elp6n** · October 9th, 2005, 01:50 PM

As for it being for only "certain types of people" I too dont quite understand.

One quick counter example I can give is the bands this year that we've seen that have football players and cheerleaders participating.
That's a little more diverse than usual.